Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
March 2007
Oracle Demantra Demand Management User Guide, Release 7.1.1
The Programs (which include both the software and documentation) contain proprietary information; they
are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are also protected
by copyright, patent, and other intellectual and industrial property laws. Reverse engineering, disassembly, or
decompilation of the Programs, except to the extent required to obtain interoperability with other
independently created software or as specified by law, is prohibited.
The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. If you find any problems in
the documentation, please report them to us in writing. This document is not warranted to be error-free.
Except as may be expressly permitted in your license agreement for these Programs, no part of these
Programs may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any
purpose.
If the Programs are delivered to the United States Government or anyone licensing or using the Programs on
behalf of the United States Government, the following notice is applicable:
The Programs are not intended for use in any nuclear, aviation, mass transit, medical, or other inherently
dangerous applications. It shall be the licensee's responsibility to take all appropriate fail-safe, backup,
redundancy and other measures to ensure the safe use of such applications if the Programs are used for such
purposes, and we disclaim liability for any damages caused by such use of the Programs.
The Programs may provide links to Web sites and access to content, products, and services from third parties.
Oracle is not responsible for the availability of, or any content provided on, third-party Web sites. You bear all
risks associated with the use of such content. If you choose to purchase any products or services from a third
party, the relationship is directly between you and the third party. Oracle is not responsible for: (a) the quality
of third-party products or services; or (b) fulfilling any of the terms of the agreement with the third party,
including delivery of products or services and warranty obligations related to purchased products or services.
Oracle is not responsible for any loss or damage of any sort that you may incur from dealing with any third
party.
Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contents
Preface
iii
Demand Management Series.................................................................................................... A-3
Index
iv
Send Us Your Comments
Oracle welcomes customers' comments and suggestions on the quality and usefulness of this document.
Your feedback is important, and helps us to best meet your needs as a user of our products. For example:
Are the implementation steps correct and complete?
Did you understand the context of the procedures?
Did you find any errors in the information?
Does the structure of the information help you with your tasks?
Do you need different information or graphics? If so, where, and in what format?
Are the examples correct? Do you need more examples?
If you find any errors or have any other suggestions for improvement, then please tell us your name, the
name of the company who has licensed our products, the title and part number of the documentation and
the chapter, section, and page number (if available).
Note: Before sending us your comments, you might like to check that you have the latest version of the
document and if any concerns are already addressed. To do this, access the new Applications Release
Online Documentation CD available on Oracle MetaLink and www.oracle.com. It contains the most
current Documentation Library plus all documents revised or released recently.
Send your comments to us using the electronic mail address: appsdoc_us@oracle.com
Please give your name, address, electronic mail address, and telephone number (optional).
If you need assistance with Oracle software, then please contact your support representative or Oracle
Support Services.
If you require training or instruction in using Oracle software, then please contact your Oracle local office
and inquire about our Oracle University offerings. A list of Oracle offices is available on our Web site at
www.oracle.com.
v
Preface
Intended Audience
Welcome to Release 7.1.1 of the Oracle Demantra Demand Management User Guide.
See Related Information Sources on page viii for more Oracle Applications product
information.
Documentation Accessibility
Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation
accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our
documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive
technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to
facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to
evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology
vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all
of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site
at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/ .
vii
Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation
This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations
that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any
representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.
Structure
1 Introduction to Demand Management
2 Demand Management Overview
3 Demand Management Worksheets
4 Configuring Demand Management
A Demand Management Levels and Series
Online Documentation
All Oracle Applications documentation is available online (HTML). Online help is
available for end users of Oracle Demantra Demand Management. Online help patches
are available on OracleMetaLink.
viii
Browser, database triggers, or any other tool to modify Oracle Applications data unless
otherwise instructed.
Oracle provides powerful tools you can use to create, store, change, retrieve, and
maintain information in an Oracle database. But if you use Oracle tools such as
SQL*Plus to modify Oracle Applications data, you risk destroying the integrity of your
data and you lose the ability to audit changes to your data.
Because Oracle Applications tables are interrelated, any change you make using an
Oracle Applications form can update many tables at once. But when you modify Oracle
Applications data using anything other than Oracle Applications, you may change a
row in one table without making corresponding changes in related tables. If your tables
get out of synchronization with each other, you risk retrieving erroneous information
and you risk unpredictable results throughout Oracle Applications.
When you use Oracle Applications to modify your data, Oracle Applications
automatically checks that your changes are valid. Oracle Applications also keeps track
of who changes information. If you enter information into database tables using
database tools, you may store invalid information. You also lose the ability to track who
has changed your information because SQL*Plus and other database tools do not keep a
record of changes.
ix
1
Introduction to Demand Management
Introduction
Oracle Demantra Demand Management provides access to your historical sales data,
returns, and other reference data organized into multiple hierarchies that reflect the
needs of your organization. An underlying spreadsheet provides a set of calculated
(and input) values that you can use at any hierarchy level.
Within Demand Management, you work almost entirely within worksheets. A
worksheet retrieves a set of data associated with given hierarchy levels, optionally
filtered; the data generally includes historical sales data, the forecast, and intermediate
data.
4. Demand analysts work with the forecast and making any corrections or
Using the graphs and reports found in these worksheets, analysts view and adjust their
forecast data. They analyze history to understand shipped, booked and customer
orders, inventory levels and other factors. For example, an analyst may consider any
upcoming events or promotions that may impact the demand as well as their customer
and sales forecast.
Based on this information, analysts modify the forecast and can run a simulation that
repopulates the worksheet with the changed data. Once their analysis and
modifications are complete, the analyst saves the changes and selects Done for the
relevant notification in the Collaborator Workbench's My Tasks view, which notifies the
demand plan manager or administrator.
These changes to the forecast are available for review by an approver. One or more
people can do the review. For example, if the analysts are responsible for demand by
region, a regional manager may approve or change the analyst's changes. Or, if an
analyst's responsibility is broken down into product lines, then the product line
manager may have final approval. Demand Management's pre-seeded approval process
is setup for one level of review. Additional levels of review require changes to the
pre-seeded Approval workflow.
The final approver can lock the forecast at any time by checking the Final Approval
Each line of business may have its separate group of planners who need to look at
the demand data pertaining to their respective line of business only.
A line of business demand plan refers to limiting the scope of a demand plan to
include only those level values (such as items, organizations, customers' ship to
locations, sales representatives) that pertain to the line of business.
When an organization has multiple LOBs, the data is often assigned to specific users
(for example based on product line or region), and the analyst is responsible for
determining the demand for that slice of data. When each analyst has reviewed and
approved his or her forecast, a master approver is notified and approves the forecast as
a whole.
The following diagram illustrates the demand management process with multiple lines
of business:
Worksheets Overview
To manage or view forecasts and demand, you start in the Collaborator Workbench and
launch any of the relevant Demand Management worksheets. Worksheets with the
necessary series for analysis and modification of the forecast are available for the
analyst at the beginning of each cycle.
Worksheet Description
Demand Analysis: Product Compare history and demand data in weekly time
Category and Organization buckets, aggregated by product category and
organization. Use this worksheet to manage and approve
the forecast.
Demand Analysis: Product Compare history and demand data in weekly time
Category and Zone buckets, aggregated by product category and zone. Use
this worksheet to manage and approve the forecast.
Demand Analysis: Item and Compare history and demand detailed data in weekly
Organization time buckets, by item and organization. Use this
worksheet to manage and approve the forecast.
Demand Analysis: Item and Zone Compare history and demand detailed data in weekly
time buckets, by item and zone. Use this worksheet to
manage and approve the forecast.
The first step in the Demand Management process is to look at your previous cycle and
determine how accurate your forecasts were. Using the Waterfall Analysis worksheets
you can compare actual versus forecast demand for individual product categories,
organizations, and regions (zones). By comparing actuals to forecast, demand planners
can identify problem areas, and deduce why forecast demand did better (or worse) than
planned.
For example, a retailer notices that some of their seasonal product categories did not
perform well during December. Using this data, your demand analyst deduces that an
unseasonably mild winter was to blame. Since this anomaly was restricted to December,
the demand analyst decides to not make any changes in future demand for those
products. Based on the results in the Forecast Accuracy worksheet, demand analysts
can make the required adjustments and take those lessons learned and apply them to
the next forecast.
The Waterfall Analysis worksheet is aggregated to the following levels, which allows
you to view and slice data depending on the details in which you're interested:
Product Category and Zone
8 Week Lag Forecast: The forecast series for the eight weeks prior to the current
week.
12 Week Lag Forecast: The forecast series for the 12 weeks prior to the current
week.
The Absolute Deviation view graphically represents the amount of deviation that exists
in your forecast at the four, eight and 13-week level, represented as total units. Use the
Absolute Deviation view to determine how much real demand differs from the forecast.
Business Data:
Forecast Accuracy 4 Week Lag Forecast for the four weeks prior to the current
Forecast time bucket.
8 Week Lag Forecast for the eight weeks prior to the current
Forecast time bucket.
13 Week Lag Forecast for the 13 weeks prior to the current time
Forecast bucket.
4 Week Lag Absolute Deviation for the four weeks prior to the
Absolute Deviation current time bucket.
4 Week Lag Absolute percentage error for the four weeks prior
Absolute % Error to the current time bucket.
4 Week Lag % Percentage error for the four weeks prior to the
Error current time bucket.
8 Week Lag % Percentage error for the eight weeks prior to the
Error current time bucket.
8 Week Lag Absolute percentage error for the eight weeks prior
Absolute % Error to the current time bucket.
8 Week Lag Absolute Deviation for the eight weeks prior to the
Absolute Deviation current time bucket.
Once you have reviewed your forecast from previous cycles to determine how accurate
it was, the next step is to review the forecast for the current planning cycle. The
Demand Analysis worksheets are available at the start of the planning cycle, and
display historical data, forecasted demand accuracy statistics and demand priority at
various levels of aggregation.
You can use the Demand Analysis worksheets to view, edit, and approve the forecast
for individual weekly time buckets. The Demand Analysis worksheet is aggregated to
the following levels, which allows you to view and slice data depending on the details
in which you're interested:
Product Category and Organization
History Override
Adjusted History
Baseline Forecast
Simulation
Base Override
% Chg to Base
Final Forecast
Absolute Deviation
Demand Priority
This table also enables users to track final approval for each line in the forecast. For
more information, see Approving the Forecast, page 3-11.
3. Enters data in the History Override field for history or base override and/or the %
Chg to Base field for the Forecast.
The results are shown in the Adjusted History and Final Forecast columns.
4. From the Data menu, choose Save Data. Or click the Save Data button.
2. If the worksheet does not show data immediately, click Data > Rerun. Or click the
Run button.
This launches the DM: Demand Analysis worksheet.
3. In the Demand Priority field, double-click the cell for which you want to set a
demand priority.
To final approve a line item in the forecast, click the appropriate check box in
the Final Approve column.
Reference
Basics:
Business Data:
EBS Input Demand Priority The allocated demand priority (note that this is
series is only applicable for EBS integrations).
Forecast Accuracy Abs Deviation Absolute deviation for the fit forecast.
2. Demand Management uses the Archive Forecast, Demand Forecast, and Planning
Group workflows to facilitate approval process. These workflows must be
configured to include the user names of your Demand Analysts, Demand Manager,
and Demand Administrators.
For more information, see Configuring Approval Workflows, page 4-5.
3. By default, Demand Management uses a weekly base time resolution with a 4-4-5
weekly fiscal calendar hierarchy. This time resolution is fully configurable and may
be changed to either days or months. As well, you can configure forecast start day,
which is set to Monday by default.
4. You can optionally configure the Demand Management worksheets to display item
short names and descriptions.
For more information, see Configuring the Item Short Name and Description, page
4-16.
5. You can configure how Demantra handles future data using the MaxSalesGen
parameter. This parameter determines how data after the end of history is
populated. Demand Management uses a configurable MaxSalesGen parameter to
control how the EP_LOAD process loads future data.
For more information, see Controlling System and Engine Maximum Sales Dates,
page 4-17.
3. Double-click the user icon for which you want to filter user data.
5. Click the Next button until the Select User Filters dialog box appears. This dialog
box lets you filter the data that the user can see; specifically, you control which
levels and members the user can see.
Now specify which members of this level the user can see. To do so, click a
member in the list, and then click the right arrow button. Or double-click the
member you want to filter out.
The system moves the selected members to the box on the lower right side, as in
this example:
7. Repeat the preceding steps for each filter you want to add. Each filter automatically
limits the choices available in subsequent filters.
Notifies all users in the Demand Analyst group that the forecast is available.
Notifies the Manager (the final approver), when all analysts have approved the
forecast or when the process has exceeded an allotted time.
Periodically rolls forecast data, based on engine profiles that are configured and
activated in the Business Modeler.
2. Locate the Demand Forecast workflow, and click the corresponding Edit button.
The Edit Schema window opens, showing the Demand Forecast definition.
5. Click OK.
2. Locate the Planning Group workflow, and click the corresponding Edit button.
The Edit Schema window opens, showing the Planning Group definition.
From the Groups list, select the user group that you want to notify when the
forecast is generated. To select more than one user, press and hold the Ctrl key
while clicking groups.
8. In the Timer section, enter a value (in days) at which point the workflow expires.
When this time is reached, the user specified in the
NotifyForecastAnalysisNotComplete step is initiated and the manager is notified
that some of the Analysts have not reviewed their forecasts.
9. In the Alert Time section, enter a value (in days) at which point the workflow
should send a reminder.
12. In the User drop-down list box, choose the user that you want to notify when all
approvals are completed; the default is Manager1.
15. In the User drop-down list box, choose the user that is to be notified that the
Analysts' reviews are complete before the specified timeout. The default value is
Manager1.
2. Locate the Approve Forecast workflow, and click the corresponding Edit button.
The Edit Schema window opens, showing the Approve Forecast definition.
4. In the User drop-down list box, enter the user name for the Demand Administrator
that you want to notify when the forecast is rolled; the default is Admin1.
5. Click OK.
3. In the Planning Group workflow's Group Step dialog box, add the additional
group and users that are part of the approval process.
5. Check the Manager check box and select the Manager's ID from the list of
values.
7. Click OK.
3. Double click the Custom Step icon to add an additional custom step.
4. In the Class Name field, enter the class name. This should be the same as in the
original step. (For example,
com.demantra.workflow.step.WorkflowLauncherStep).
6. Add the schema_id parameter, and assign it the same value as the schema_id
parameter in the duplicate Planning Group workflow created in step 1.
7. Add the user_id parameter, and assign it the same value as the user_id
parameter in the duplicate Planning Group workflow created in step 1.
8. Add the sync parameter, and assign it the same value as the sync parameter in
the duplicate Planning Group workflow created in step 1.
9. Click OK.
Configuring the Base Time Unit and Time Bucket Start Day
The default Demand Management time hierarchy is a 4-4-5 (week) fiscal calendar. You
can change this configuration to suit your business needs. If you change the base time
unit from Week to either Day or Month, then all worksheets and integration profiles
need to be re-configured. The data model must be upgraded for the changes to take
effect.
The base time bucket start day is Mondays by default, with the week ending Sunday.
The Demand Administrator may change this base time unit after initial installation
using the Business Modeler's Data Model wizard.
Note: This change will affect all users in the system and should be
coordinated through the Demantra system administrator. In addition,
changing this setting will clear all time dependant information in the
system and require a full historical refresh.
If the time bucket is changed from weekly to either daily or monthly, then the
corresponding series has to be created for the lagged forecast series used in the
Waterfall Analysis worksheets. For example, it may no longer be appropriate to use the
last 13 lagged forecast cycles as a base for the worksheet.
Changing the Base Time Unit and Time Bucket Start Day
1. Log into the Business Modeler. If you do not have access to this, contact your
6. In the First Day of Week field, choose the day of the week on which you want to
start the time bucket.
7. Click the Next button until you reach the Finish Wizard dialog box.
Keep Series: Click this if you do not want to make any changes to the
existing series. This option is suitable if you are in the process of working
on the data model but do not want to spend the time updating the series
definitions right now.
Alternatively, if you are just modifying an existing data model, select Upgrade
Existing Model. In this case, if you have made changes to the base time unit,
select Run Time Bucket.
The process of building the data model begins. This may take a few minutes.
2. In My Tasks, click the worksheet to which you want to add item short names and
descriptions.
Or if a worksheet is currently open, click File > Open. Click the worksheet to which
you want to add item short names and descriptions, and then click Open.
7. Do one or more of the following to add item short names and descriptions to the
worksheet:
To display the item short name, select Item.
8. Click OK.
Sysdate: Use this value to base the last date of history on the period containing
today's date. For example, in a weekly system with weeks beginning Monday, if
run on Feb 16th 2007 the last date of history would be set to the previous
01-01-1900 00:00:00: Use this date to set the end of history to the last date in the
sales_data table where the actual_quantity column>0.
Use this value in production environments where future information is being
loaded but there is a lag in historical information availability. It is critical that
the data used to drive the engine be stored in the actual_quantity column. Note
that using this setting can potentially increase loading times for large
deployments.
Any date other than 01-01-1900 00:00:00: Any other date will cause the last date
of history to be based on the entered date. In a weekly system with weeks
beginning Monday, if date entered is Jan 16th 2007 the last date of history
would be set to the previous Monday 1/15/2007. For a monthly system run with
the same parameter setting the end of history would be set to 1/1/2007.
Use this value to test systems where the desired end of history date does not
match executed date. Allows users full control on dates assigned as end of
history and beginning of forecast.
Item
Product Category
Product Description
Product Family
Operation Unit
Business Group
Sales Channel
Site
Account
Product Description
Branch City
Branch Country
Site
Account
Customer City
Customer Country
Customer State
Series Description
Index-1
generating, 2-2 security, 4-1
managing and approving, 2-3 sending notifications, 2-2
uploading, 2-4 series, 3-7, A-3
Forecast series group, 3-13 system parameters, 4-18
Four week lag forecast, 3-4
T
G time bucket start day, 4-12
generating forecasts, 2-2 time resolution, 4-1
Twelve week lag forecast, 3-4
H
Historical Demand series group, 3-8, 3-13 U
uploading forecasts, 2-4
I user configuration, 4-2
user groups, 4-1
integration profiles, 4-17
users, 4-1
item description, 4-16
item short name, 4-16
W
L Waterfall Analysis worksheet, 2-3, 3-3
Absolute Deviation view, 3-4
levels, A-1
business data, 3-7
LOB. See multiple lines of business, 2-4
Forecast and Metrics view, 3-4
Forecast Percentage Error view, 3-5
M
Waterfall Analysis workshset, 3-2
maximum sales dates, 4-17 Workflow Manager, 4-7
MaxSalesGen parameter, 4-2, 4-18 workflows, 4-11
modifying sales override values, 3-10 Archive Forecast, 4-1
multiple lines of business, 2-4 configuring, 4-5
Demand Forecast, 4-1
O Planning Group, 4-1
Oracle Advanced Planning Suite, 2-2 worksheets, 3-1
Oracle Collaborative Planning, 2-2 Demand Analysis, 2-3, 3-8
Oracle Demantra Demand Management. See Waterfall Analysis, 2-3, 3-3
Demand Management, 1-1
Oracle Global Order Promising, 2-2
Oracle Inventory Optimization, 2-2
overview of Demand Management, 2-1
overview of the configuration process, 4-1
P
Planning Group workflow, 4-1, 4-5, 4-7
process, demand management, 2-1
S
Sales series group, 3-8, 3-13
Index-2